The present application relates to one or more rotatable gantries for radiation imaging modalities that utilize radiation to examine an object. It finds particular application in the field of computed tomography (CT) imaging utilized in medical, security, and/or industrial applications, for example. However, it also relates to other radiation imaging modalities in which at least one of a radiation source and/or a detector array is rotated about an object under examination.
Today, CT and other radiation imaging modalities (e.g., mammography, digital radiography, etc.) are useful to provide information, or images, of interior aspects of an object under examination. Generally, the object is exposed to radiation (e.g., x-rays, gamma rays, etc.), and an image(s) is formed based upon the radiation absorbed and/or attenuated by the interior aspects of the object, or rather an amount of radiation photons that is able to pass through the object. Typically, highly dense aspects of the object absorb and/or attenuate more radiation than less dense aspects, and thus an aspect having a higher density, such as a bone or metal, for example, will be apparent when surrounded by less dense aspects, such as muscle or clothing.
Radiation imaging modalities generally comprise, among other things, one or more radiation sources (e.g., an x-ray source, Gamma-ray source, etc.) and a detector array comprised of a plurality of detector cells that are respectively configured to convert radiation that has traversed the object into signals that may be processed to produce the image(s). As an object is passed through an examination region defined between the radiation source(s) and the detector array, radiation is absorbed/attenuated by the object, causing changes in the amount of radiation detected by the detector array.
In some applications, the radiation source and the detector array are mounted on a single rotating unit, with the rotating unit rotating about the object as the object is passed through the rotating unit. The rotational speed of the rotating unit may be limited by, among other things, the size of the rotating unit, the weight of the detector array, and/or the weight of the radiation source. Moreover, in embodiments where an object is translated through the examination region during an examination, a speed of translation may be a function of the rotational speed of the rotating unit. Accordingly, throughput of the radiation imaging modality may be a function of, among other things, the rotational speed of the rotating unit.